Would you rework the first guitar you built?

[Perry Underwood]

I completed my first electric guitar while I was a student in the guitar building and repair program in Red Wing, Minnesota. Since that time, I've actually played the guitar very little because it has been in storage for the last 10+ years. Now I have it with me and have been playing it more.

There are some things I would like to change about the guitar, but part of me feels that it is a record of where I was at that time as an aspiring builder. Recently, I did do a few things to make it play better, such as putting a better nut on it and leveling the frets again. There are, however, some stylistic changes I would like to make--at least part of me wants to make them.

Has anyone on the forum gone back and reworked the first instrument they built? Any regrets?

Here's a photo of the guitar. I was into a very minimalist point of view at that time.

[Beate Ritzert]

I did and am actually making changes to my early builds. These mostly regard improvements / corrections of its limitations or flaws, like the sound tuning of my archtop i am currently doing.
But i tend to respect the instrument in its identity.

And this is what i would suggest to do with Your guitar - if there are any serious flaws in craftmanship, correct them if possible. If it is possible / necessary to tune the sound by simple means like changig pickups, adding a resistor to simulate the load of the missing pots, maybe even add a 2nd toggle switch to select different preset voicings if there is enough space in the cavity.

But i would refrain from any deeper modification of its appearance and respect the integrity of that build - which, btw in my eyes is very appealing in its reduction to the minimum.

[Mark Swanson]

I agree with Beate! Keep its original character intact and fix only what you have to. I like the clean look of that one, and it has a graceful shape to it.

[Eric Baack]

It is your instrument... do with it as you will. I'm thinking of sometime adding a nice veneer to the top of my first as I don't care for how the grain/finish on it looks. Other then that, I filed the nut slots and now I can actually get it to intonate so I'm happy with it for now.

[Michael Lewis]

Nuts and frets are normal wear items, so no really big deal if you change them out for better. Other than that, once you make any big changes you can't unmake them. Make it playable, if you want something to look different make another one.

[Perry Underwood]

Thank you for your replies and comments. The changes I have thought about include refinishing the guitar and improving on some of the woodworking. I used tung oil as a finish, and it has yellowed in some places. One major improvement I can make is to round-over the edges of the body. For some reason when I built the guitar, I had in mind that getting the sides square to the top and bottom of the body would be a great achievement, and that would also include no round-over of the edges. Now after playing the guitar more I realize this is rather uncomfortable.

This is a more recent guitar I built using almost the same body shape. I'm not sure about the "football" shaped pickguard, though.

[Warren May]

From the pictures, the first guitar looks fine and I don't think I would round off the corners, personally. An arm contour, maybe, and if you don't like the finish, that would be a consideration. Other than that, I agree the football shaped pickguard is a little off but I wouldn't add a pickguard to #1, just my opinion.

[Nick Middleton]

I like what you did to the look of the guitar now. If the guitar was given to me, I'd replace the pickguard with one that is styles more-like a Les Paul Jr since the pickup/bridge combo give me that sort of vibe about it.

[Mark Swanson]

I'd make the pickguard a bit bigger so that the P-90 could be mounted in it.

[Art Davila]

I know this is an old thread but had to put in my 2 cents.
I am new to building, so far I have assembled a few guitars that I modded the body but not the neck. but I started to get interested in the process years ago from a instrument repair man who taught me a few things with replacing pickups and intonation of bridges that kind of stuff.

Well he once told me that he never owned the guitars he built or modified, and as taking pictures back in the 40's was kind of pricey for him he never did.
But he wished that he had, so that he would have a catalog or his work.
He was proud of how he learned "On The Job" with guidance from others.
Later by the mid fifties he started to take pictures and notes of the many instruments he made and he repaired.

So far I have 2 assemblies under my belt and I didn't take pictures or notes and I already regret that.
I put a lot of hard work in them both, and made a lot of mistakes in both, and was generally not really happy with either.
But I learned from both, and I hope I learn from all my projects. I hope some day I will be happy with my work every time I build.

So may be if you take notes of the original and pictures, and take the time to chronicle your upgrades.
You can have you memories of the early work, and still make your improvement too.